


I suppose… she makes me quiet

by litspinels



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:58:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21758053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litspinels/pseuds/litspinels
Summary: Please do not comment on my fics. Thank you.
Relationships: Kogami Shinya/Tsunemori Akane
Kudos: 45





	I suppose… she makes me quiet

A wanderer like him could have easily disappeared and found his way somewhere else despite the bounty on his head. If there’s anything he learned on his travels it’s that in a world that seldom sees peace, kind people are not in short supply. Had he made a different decision, the likely alternative might have been a smaller seat; a less comfortable mode of transport. 

“--generous funding, state-of-the-art technology, updated weaponry…”

“You don’t have to sell it so hard.”

He keeps his eyes on the dusty, rocky road. In a few hours they will reach the border, and the Japanese Military outpost where the planes carrying mostly cargo will take them home. Normally he won’t trust someone from the Japanese government so easily; he doesn’t know the full details of her offer, of what he’s required to do now, but she held up her end of the bargain, even risked her life for it, and he gave her his word. 

“Good. Having you would be easier to convince Ginoza and Sugo--”

“Gino?” 

Hanashiro smirks, tilting her head to the side; a mischievous glint in her eyes as she turns a sharp corner and the gems dangling on her earrings sway from side to side. “Thought you’d be a good catch. I need the best people in my team.”

“Done with the smoke and mirrors now, I see.”

“It’s not that. God, you’re cynical,” she replies, laughing now. “Imagine my luck finding the runaway enforcer Shinya Kogami all the way in Bhutan. I didn’t have clearance when I met you. I couldn’t offer what I could  _ until _ I could. You won’t believe the string I had to pull to get an exception. I couldn’t believe it myself.”

“Huh,” Kogami raises a brow, turning his gaze away. “Still wanted me dead, I see.”

“The feeling is mutual between you and Sibyl, it seems.”

“The execution order was in place  _ before _ I killed Makishima,” he sneers, jaw tightening. “Just my luck to be despised even before being an actual murderer.”

Hanashiro takes her eyes off the road momentarily, side-eyeing Kogami with a softer gaze. “But you still killed him, no?”

Kogami doesn’t answer. He rolls the window down, grabbing a cigarette from his last packet. Only a few sticks left, but he still has a ways to go. 

“Not that you cared about being hated by Sibyl more than Sibyl forcing your hand that resulted in you getting absolutely nothing but revenge in return, right?”

Kogami ignores her quip, choosing to take a drag on his cigarette instead. 

She isn’t out to dig an already open grave, and her own reading of him can only take her so far. This man will be working for him, and it’s probably not a good idea to have him so closed off. 

“What are you doing anyway, swiping enforcers off the CID?” 

“First of all,  _ not yet _ . Second, I can only get that kind of caliber from there, as I've mentioned previously. Sugo had rejected me already--”

“I don’t know who Sugo is--”

“Don’t worry, I’ll introduce you.”

Kogami doesn’t respond. His thoughts run ahead of him as he watches the dust rise up from the ground, the wheels of their vehicle displacing the small rocks at the edge of the road. They’ve long since passed the colorful flags on the rolling hills, and are now surrounded by lush forests. Soon the endless green will be replaced by bright lights, the howling wind and chirping insects will be a distant memory against the sounds of the bustling city. The cost in exchange, of explosions, gunfire and war-- the little moments of simplicity he could find versus the proud and peaceful, semi-isolated home that he abandoned. 

He might not come back here again.

“Don’t let yourself miss it. Foreign Affairs mean just that-- you’re bound to be back outside Japan before you know it.”

Kogami snorts. “Why, do I suddenly prefer the curiosity of a child than that of a woman who reads me at every turn...”

“Sorry, it’s a habit. I don’t mean to be so intrusive.”

He turns to blow the smoke out the window, extinguishing the cigarette in his pocket ashtray. “Well, you’re right.” 

“And you’re only used to one person being right about you,” Hanashiro replies, confident. “Or is it… you only want  _ one person _ to be right about you?”

“Quite a claim,” Kogami says, suppressing a chuckle. He had a feeling she would corner him like this. “I can drive. Let’s switch at the next stop.”

***

“Maybe you should take the backseat if you’re so uncomfortable about me seeing your screen. Not that I can take my eyes off the road, of course.”

“You know what, you’re absolutely right.” She cranks the lever to recline her seat and hops to the back. She works quietly, typing away as they pass another town. Kogami focuses on the road, mostly empty now that they’re ever closer to the border. It was one of the country’s exit points, but had very few passing through it, mostly due to the fact that it’s now a Japanese-occupied land. 

They don’t bother each other after a while, and when she closes her laptop and places it at the front, she stays at the back seat and lies down. “Don’t touch.”

“You’re serious? You want me to crash the 4WD?”

“I’m not beyond thinking you’d do anything if you really wanted to, but that’s a little idiotic considering you can just stop the vehicle on the side of the road.” 

Kogami laughs, indeed that was a good point. She seems to be constantly implying that the contents of her laptop would be of interest to him, and maybe it’s true, but mostly he’s resigned to being taken along for the ride whether or not he’d be allowed to do the driving; snooping around is the least of his priorities. 

In the distance, the sun begins to set, painting the skyline of trees and mountains a deep orange hue. Kogami grips the steering wheel, probably harder than he means to. He can’t remember the last time he allowed himself to think of it. Japan is five hours away via their chartered aircraft, and what waits for him there… who waits for him there; the likeliest answer being nothing, and no one. Now that their destination looms near he feels reality coming up to meet him, a guard at the gates of a makeshift prison called Sibyl. 

It’s where his mother is, right where he left her, getting by on her own, most probably. It’s where his old friends are, and where his old life took a halt, like a bookmarked page in an unfinished book. 

He doesn’t have a face to show to his mother, that’s for sure. He could say he’s lucky in that regard, because the door will still be open, and a meal will be prepared, for the son who will come home with his tail between his legs. He’s not one to resent his friends, few as they may be, if they decide that a punch wasn’t enough to compensate for past hurts, or if his own impact in their lives, if any, was rendered meaningless after everything he’s done. 

Kogami wonders, after deciding not to kill anymore, and ending this journey with blood still on his hands, if he could still hold his head up when he meets  _ her _ . Since they parted he’s stopped killing, but like clockwork he falls back to his own twisted law of retribution, one he wields without regard for his own principles or promises. The life he tried to lead and ended up leading, the weight of his own stubbornness and guilt, and the ever-present ghost inside his head; Kogami is nowhere near the man he used to be when he escaped Japan. Always he knew that his sins outweighed his merits, but meeting her again had him seeking validation of the kind of man he was in her eyes. Maybe the only punishment he’s willing to accept is at the end of her gun.

Never one to indulge in fantasy, Kogami knows the dangers of being in too deep in his head; giving more room to his demons has always been easier to snap out of. But sometimes, when the world is reduced to the road in front of him, surrounded by calm and a mind unburdened, he takes out a little piece of hope he dares to pocket for himself. 

How she’s been, what she’s been up to… Has it only been so long since they saw each other last? She must not have changed much, then. His lips curl, unable to help it. She was,  _ is _ , after all, someone still very alive, one whose memory evokes pride, and a tenderness that blooms warmth inside his chest. Clinging to her is dangerous; it makes him weak with longing for something he believes he doesn’t deserve to have, yet every now and then he injects these thoughts like a drug; a silver lining every time he makes it out alive.

“I can hear you thinking from back here.”

“I was enjoying the silence, actually.”

“Is that your kind way of telling me to shut up?”

“I don’t have to be kind about it. Now, shut up.”

They pass by a sign telling him that the border is less than ten kilometers away. Kogami lets out a shaky breath, brows furrowed as he steels himself. Close to a point of no return now, his foot is steady on the gas, with one thought to his destination. 

Home. Right now he doesn’t know what that means, but maybe he only considered it knowing she’ll be present in some way. As the last light of day falls on the horizon, Kogami catches himself wishing a divide won’t exist between them upon his return. It’s inevitable now, they’re fated to meet. 

He may very well be coming back to nothing. People move on; he certainly tried to. 

But If she waited, if she wanted… 

  
  


***

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please do not comment on my fics. Thank you.


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